Odyssey One Day race report.

By Sarah Reschovsky, team Calleva/UHB


My second 24 hour Odyssey adventure race was definitely a humbling experience. Phil and I raced as a team of two, but Dima (as a solo racer) luckily stuck with us the entire way. Not only did it take place on one of the hottest days of the summer, but the course proved to be virtually impossible; not a single team completed the course within the time limit. The biking section began with a killer uphill on a switchback mountain road. From the beginning, it was clear to Phil and I that we would spend most of the race staring at Dima’s backside and struggling to keep up with him.

We followed a logging road for a bit, which contoured around the mountain. We soon realized, however, that we needed to bushwack (with our bikes) up to the top of the ridge in order to get checkpoint 2. After several hours of bushwacking and pushing our bikes on unridable trails, we found checkpoint 2, then descended back down the mountain. Arriving at checkpoint 3 proved to be no less difficult; we spent many more hours gaining elevation and pushing our bikes across unridable trails. We reached checkpoint 4 at about 12:30 am, and were relieved to be able to refill our water supply and finally get rid of our bikes after spending over 12 hours on the biking section.

The trekking section provided us with a much-needed boost in moral. Phil and I enjoyed hearing Dima’s crazy stories, and we quickly got checkpoint 5. We then began bushwacking across a ridge in search of checkpoint 6. Navigating to this next checkpoint at night proved extremely difficult; not only were there no trails, but there were several cliffs interfering with our ability to move or see in the right direction. At this point in the race, Phil and I bonked, and struggled to keep up with Dima (who never seems to tire...) Once the sun began to rise, it dawned on us (tee-hee) that we would not be able to make the time cut-off. We began descending down from the mountain in hopes of finding a road to lead us back to civilization. The hike down the mountain took several hours, but eventually we were able to find a road, and we were able to hitch a ride back to headquarters.

This race proved to be much tougher than we expected, but it was a great experience nonetheless. Team UHB missed Swish’s presence on this race, but the team will definitely be coming back for more!



All race photo are here.